What do you do if you’re unhappy with a meal you’ve been served in a restaurant? We have those only too willing to complain, but I suspect far, far more of us simply don’t like to complain and say nothing. Well, at least until we leave and then we have a good old moan about how awful the meal was.
It’s just not in our nature to make a fuss; and anyway, complaining to the waiter or waitress about the quality of the food might seem a little unfair. It’s hardly their fault. Perhaps we should also be realistic, paying a few pounds for a meal and expecting gourmet-class ingredients.
As silly as it might sound, I think there is an analogy here with our health service. Complaining about the service we get to the very people treating us, who are under tremendous pressure, seems unfair.
When really the fault lies not with those on the “coalface” but with those further up the chain. (That, of course, does not exclude from criticism those health professionals who fall below the standards of the majority.)
And we seem to expect so much from our health service, yet would we be prepared to pay more in taxes to fully resource it?
Let me say at the outset, that I am a big fan of the NHS. It is a wonderful service, and many of us have very positive experiences.
But, many of us have negative experiences, too, and we in the media and society generally have a responsibility to get the balance right.
For example, I recently collected my 91-year-old uncle from hospital (not in Fermanagh). We’d be told just before midday that he was ready for home. He didn’t get discharged until 7.15 that evening, and spent much of the time in a chair becoming agitated at the delay – which proved mostly to be down to waiting for medication to arrive on the ward from the hospital pharmacy.
And when I did get him home, we discovered a needle had been left in his arm, and some of his basic toiletry requirements hadn’t been catered for.
Did the family put in a complaint?
Well, no.
I sat with him for several hours and watched and listened as young nursing staff showed unbelievable patience in dealing with what I would consider distressing, and yes, dirty work with elderly people.
Complain about them? My admiration for them actually increased. My real complaints about the health service in general are with the management, and indeed with politicians and those responsible for financing the service.
I have to say that I was alarmed at a headline in this newspaper last week; “Rural health services will collapse in 18 months.” This was a line from a report by a local GP.
I have to say that GPs are people that I admire greatly; what we expect of them is nothing short of phenomenal. How many times, for example, do you read “check with your doctor”, whether it be before starting a new exercise regime, or if you find something unusual or different about your body. Or indeed, you’ve got a heavy cold or a tummy bug and you’re demanding an antibiotic.
I never cease to be amazed about the range of knowledge our GPS have; from the early signs of serious diseases, to basic allergies to a range of specialties which individually require consultant follow-ups. And sometimes even just being a listening ear.
And all this has to be checked and spotted in a 10-minute appointment.
And when we don’t get the service we demand these days, not only do we complain, but in this litigious age there is a greater tendency by some to start looking for compensation.
I’m not suggesting for a single second that we shouldn’t complain when things go wrong. Or, indeed, am I encouraging people to stay away from their doctor. I have always found my own GP practice to take every issue very seriously and sympathetically, no matter how trivial it might seem.
But, I do think we need to recognise that the GP system, the real backbone of our health service, is being overworked and facing unparalleled demands. And we should at the very least recognise this fact.
It would appear that these pressures are putting an intolerable strain on the service in rural Fermanagh, and that it is no exaggeration to say that the GP service here is facing a real crisis. One estimate is that of the 32 GPs working in Fermanagh, nine will leave or retire in the next 12 to 18 months, and because there are fewer and fewer young people going into General Practice (and who can blame them) many areas with be left without a GP.
It seems that areas such as Rosslea, Newtownbutler, Derrylin, Maguiresbridge and Brookeborough are particularly under threat; but, of course, the whole county would face a resource issue if other areas had to pick up the slack. The domino effect would mean a threat of real collapse of the service across Fermanagh.
Longer waiting times for hospital treatment appears to be making the problem worse. If it take a year, or even two, to see a consultant about an orthopaedic problem or pain problem, what happens throughout that time. No doubt, quite rightly, the patient will want some help from their GP.
This is not to overplay the problems facing our GP service; the problems are real enough and our politicians should not ignore the difficulties of the health service in Fermanagh the way they do with our roads, for example. And those in management, picking up pretty good salaries, should not be content in just managing decline, but take real steps to ease the pressures on GPs and their patients.
We should be putting more pressure on those in authority, that’s the place to complain to.
Is there also more we could do?
Remember the old ad, “you don’t need a pill for every ill.”? Or at least try checking with the minor ailments service at the pharmacy. This is a great service where we could get help.
Another suggestion, for example, that if there’s a possibility of an infection, you could bring a urine sample to the desk and get labels to have it tested. Then if there is an infection, you could get a prescription without having to talk to the doctor.
I find also that more people are checking out their own symptoms online (on reliable sites of course) before deciding whether to get an appointment.
Perhaps I shouldn’t really be offering such advice. There’s no easy answer to any of this. But we do need to recognise that our fantastic GP service is under serious threat; we don’t want to lose it.